Trader Walks Free in Euribor Trial

Former Deutsche Bank trader and managing director Andreas Hauschild has been acquitted of conspiracy to defraud at London’s Southwark Crown Court over the rigging of the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) after being found not guilty of manipulating the benchmark rate during global financial crisis.

The case was brought by the UK”s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) against 11 traders overall, however it has had mixed fortunes in its attempts to bring interest rate traders and benchmark submitters to justice over the past two years. While four former traders have been convicted and sentenced, Hauschild is the third trader to be acquitted. Elsewhere four others, former Deutsche Bank traders Joerg Vogt, Ardalan Gharagozlou, Kai-Uwe Kappauf and Societe Generale employee Stephane Esper have refused to appear for trial and the SFO has had extradition requests refused by Germany and France.

Former principal trader at Deutsche Bank, Christian Bittar; former Barclays director Phillipe Moryoussef; former director of portfolio liquidity management at Barclays, Colin Bermingham; and Carlo Palombo, former vice president of euro rates and swaps at Barclays, have been found guilty of conspiring to submit false or misleading Euribor estimates that would benefit their trading positions and change the eventual average rate, while former Deutsche Bank trader Achim Kraemer and former Barclays trader Sisse Bohart were both acquitted.